Juniper Berry Substitutes, Ranked by the Job Juniper Is Doing

No juniper berries? Gin is the most direct swap, since juniper is its main flavoring. Dried rosemary covers the piney note, and in sauerkraut you can lean on caraway, juniper’s traditional partner there. Nothing else carries juniper’s whole profile, slightly piney with touches of fruitiness and pepperiness, so the best stand-in depends on what juniper is doing in your recipe.

Quick answer

How the ratios on this page are labeled

Every ratio carries one of four labels.

• Computed: based on a measurable physical relationship.
• Attributed: a named source publishes this ratio. We quote it as theirs.
• Disputed: named sources give different answers to the same swap. You get each one, side by side.
• Method: our starting point, based on how the two compare. Taste and adjust.

The only published juniper-substitute ratios we found come from two bylined food blogs, Pantry & Larder and Greedy Gourmet. Neither says how it got its figures, and they measure juniper differently: Pantry & Larder counts berries, while Greedy Gourmet measures tablespoons of berries.

If juniper is the piney note in a braise, marinade or sauce

This is juniper’s classic job in game and rich meat dishes. Game is among its most common uses, and Gernot Katzer says it’s felt to be indispensable for venison.¹

1. Gin

Juniper is gin’s principal flavoring. That makes gin the most direct way to get juniper’s own aroma into a dish.

Gin isn’t pure juniper, though. Britannica says each producer uses a secret formula that adds other botanicals, such as orris, angelica and licorice roots, lemon and orange peel, cassia bark, caraway, coriander, cardamom, anise and fennel. Dry gins carry more added flavorings than Dutch types.² Expect some citrus or spice along with the pine. A brand name won’t guarantee a juniper-only flavor.

Don’t count on the alcohol cooking off completely. In USDA’s measurements, a dish simmered or baked for 15 minutes after the alcohol went in kept about 40 percent of it, and one simmered for 2½ hours kept about 5 percent.³ Gin suits a long braise better than a quick pan sauce.

Ratio (Attributed): Pantry & Larder says to replace 6 juniper berries with 1 tablespoon of gin,⁴ which works out to 1 teaspoon per 2 berries. Greedy Gourmet gives no amount for gin.⁵ Count the gin as part of the recipe’s liquid.

2. Dried rosemary

Rosemary’s link to juniper is α-pinene, a main aroma compound in both, which gives rosemary its warm, piny scent.⁶⁷

Where it falls short: rosemary also has a pungent, camphor-like smell and burning taste, and it lacks juniper’s fruitiness. Use it where the pine note matters more than the sweetness.

Ratio (Disputed):

These point in opposite directions. The EMA describes a juniper cone as up to 10 mm across.⁶ By our math, six spheres that size come to about 3 mL, a fifth of a 15 mL tablespoon. So Pantry & Larder calls for several times more rosemary than juniper by volume, while Greedy Gourmet calls for about a third as much. Neither explains its figure. Our starting point: a pinch, about 1/4 teaspoon of dried rosemary per 6 berries, added early. Taste once the dish has simmered and add more if it needs it. Rosemary’s camphor note is easier to add than to take out.

If juniper is seasoning sauerkraut or cabbage

Caraway seed

Caraway is already juniper’s partner here. Katzer says traditional sauerkraut is seasoned with juniper, caraway and sometimes a few bay leaves.¹ If the juniper’s missing, leaning on the caraway keeps the dish in the same tradition. It tastes different, though: caraway’s aroma is reminiscent of anise, with a warm, slightly sharp taste. Expect a seedier, anise-tinged dish, not a piney one.

Ratio (Disputed):

As with rosemary, the first is several times more caraway than juniper by volume and the second a small fraction. Our starting point: about 1/4 teaspoon of caraway per 6 berries, on top of any caraway the recipe already calls for, then taste.

If juniper is one of several aromatics in a long braise

Bay leaf

Bay leaf shares juniper’s minor aroma compounds but not its main one,⁸ so a bay leaf adds a herbal background, not pine. Katzer’s sauerkraut seasoning puts the two side by side.

Ratio (Method): Greedy Gourmet says to use 2 dried bay leaves per 1 tablespoon of juniper berries.⁵ Pantry & Larder says to replace 6 berries with an “equal amount” of bay leaves but doesn’t say whether it means by count or by volume.⁴ Run Greedy Gourmet’s figure through our size estimate above and you get well under one leaf for 6 berries, so one leaf is a practical starting point.

Other options, and what to skip

• Cardamom. It brings a camphor-and-citrus warmth, not pine.⁹ Pantry & Larder lists it but gives two different amounts in the same article (1/2 tablespoon ground per 6 berries in its text, 1:1 in its summary table),⁴ so we don’t use either. If you try it, start with a small pinch of ground cardamom and taste.
• Cedar berries. These are the cones of other juniper species, such as eastern redcedar. The FDA’s list of essential oils and extracts generally recognized as safe names juniper berries only as Juniperus communis.¹⁰ We found no source assessing cedar berries as a food, so we don’t suggest them. See cedar berries.

What isn’t known

• No source we found converts a count of juniper berries to a volume. Our comparison uses the EMA’s maximum cone size, so real berries may be smaller.
• We didn’t find anyone who publishes how much juniper a given gin contains. Producers keep their formulas secret.²
• We found no credible source for a “traditional” juniper substitute in any dish.

Related

• Juniper berries
• Allspice berries vs. juniper berries, cedar berries vs. juniper berries
• Rosemary, rosemary substitutes, too much rosemary
• Caraway seeds, cooking with caraway seeds
• Bay leaves, bay leaf substitutes
• Cardamom

Footnotes

1. Gernot Katzer, “Juniper (Juniperus communis L.)”, Gernot Katzer’s Spice Pages. gernot-katzers-spice-pages.com · Reference work ↩ ↩²

2. “Gin”, Encyclopaedia Britannica. britannica.com · Reference work ↩ ↩²

3. USDA Table of Nutrient Retention Factors, Release 6, USDA Agricultural Research Service, 2007. ars.usda.gov · Regulator ↩

4. Veronica Fletcher, “Juniper Berries Substitutes”, Pantry & Larder, 2023. pantryandlarder.com · Publication ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

5. Michelle Minnaar, “Juniper Berries Substitutes”, Greedy Gourmet, 2023. greedygourmet.com · Publication ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

6. Assessment report on Juniperus communis L., pseudo-fructus (galbulus), Revision 1, European Medicines Agency, 2023. ema.europa.eu · Regulator ↩ ↩²

7. C.C. de Guzman, Rosmarinus officinalis, Plant Resources of South-East Asia (PROSEA). uses.plantnet-project.org · Reference work ↩

8. Caputo et al., “Laurus nobilis: Composition of Essential Oil and Its Biological Activities”, Molecules, 2017. mdpi.com · Peer-reviewed ↩

9. T.H. Wardini and A. Thomas, Elettaria cardamomum, Plant Resources of South-East Asia (PROSEA). uses.plantnet-project.org · Reference work ↩

10. 21 CFR 182.20, Essential oils, oleoresins (solvent-free), and natural extractives, US Code of Federal Regulations. ecfr.gov · Regulator ↩

Also drawn on

• What the Heck Do I Do With Juniper Berries? (Lisa Bramen, 28 Dec 2011), Smithsonian Magazine. smithsonianmag.com
• Caraway, Encyclopaedia Britannica. britannica.com